Everybody set your clocks last night? "Spring forward, fall back." That saying always reminds me of the message on the ELO album "Face the Music" - The one that was recorded backwards: "The music is reversible. Turn back, turn back, turn back." Remember that?I've been spending a lot of time with the Paramours. I gotta say that the thing I'm impressed with most is how loud they get. I know that's not the main thing, but really - it sounds like 100 watts or something. Clean. I can think of so many guitar players talking about "tube watts being more than transistor watts." I remember always thinking that tubes just acted differently when they entered clipping, and I still think that is the reason for that belief. But whatever - I can watch movies having the soundtrack piped through the Paramours with such huge impact that I absolutely don't feel that they need more power at all, not even in the bass. Big sound, huge dynamics, and thunderous bass. Just huge!
Those of you that can simply must try the π / Paramour combination. It's really great. Take away all the tone controls, bass boost or anything else like that. Just run it pure, a single 2A3 tube and nothing more. Thunderous bass, stunning range and huge dynamics. Now I'm using all those subjective terms I sometimes found inadequate. If I start talking about "liquid midrange" or "pinpoint imaging" I'll know I've gone too far and become intoxicated. Then again, maybe I'm already there. I can't help but to use terms like "thunderous" and "stunning." And when you consider that I'm used to running hundreds of watts to the same speakers - When I say that the dynamics are huge, I'm not kidding you. When you get 'em up to full volume - not clipping level, mind you - but clean full volume is a level where nobody in the room can talk to each other because it's just too loud.